Friday, February 1, 2013

Searching for Equipment

The second step of I-SEARCH is actually finding information.  I-SEARCH wants me to explore the information and ask questions.  Awesome idea!

After getting a general background about curling and making a mind concept map, I am now ready to hunt for information.  The question is:  where am I going to find good valid information?  What am I going to do with it when I find it?
 
I like Wikipedia as a background source, but not as an authoritative source. 

Reflection Moment:  Learners need to understand the difference between authoritative sources of information and non-authoritative sources.

Sometimes classes dictate which sources are in play and which ones are not allowed.  I want a book and a journal article?  Hmm... I do not think a journal article makes sense for this project.  I will allow authoritative websites, and, yes, I will allow YouTube videos that are conducted from a professional organization or professional interview.

I already know what books are at the library by looking at the online catalog.  I need to find an authoritative website on curling.  So, I need to develop a good search strategy.

Reflection Moment:  Learners will need to understand how to determine if a website is an authoritative source.

The World Curling Federation has rules and regulation about curling, located at
http://www.worldcurling.org/rules-and-regulations which has a PDF file located on the page. 
This is a 60-page document, so I know I will need to summarize the rules. 


WAIT!!  This happens in the next step.

Okay, we have a problem here.  We need to start taking notes and summarizing information.  Or, we need to keep track of where the information is located, so we can go back to it later.  I have worked it through both ways.  I think this will depend on what type of project on which one is working.  I know I will need a rule section in my paper.  I may choose to summarize it now.  I really think this depends on a learner's WRITING STYLE.  Here is where two worlds collide, WRITING and INFORMATION LITERACY.  One could make the argument that information literacy is non-linear; thus, it is okay to do either.  I think that is correct, but a writing teacher may not agree.  They may want a person to gather information and then piece the information together.

Upon examination of a paper on I-SEARCH, these two steps do seem to get blurred together.  Tallman writes:  Pre-notetaking:  After choosing the topic, the students wrote about what they knew, did not know, and wanted to know about the topic. On a worksheet split into three columns, they answered each of these questions. Students who chose a topic without much personal interest commented on how difficult this exercise was

For the sake of the argument, I will follow our information model and bookmark the website for later use.

Reflection Moment:  Learners may want to use technology tools such as social bookmarking to aid them in tracking information on the web.

I wanted to see if there were any good YouTube videos on curling.  I was hoping to find something about how to curl.  This was a good interview on scoring and equipment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37PY5qvO_tQ.

I also found this YouTube interview on the mechanics of curling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU_6M9mek74.

Reflection Moment:  Searching YouTube is difficult.  Do you know how many curling videos have been made?  This requires some savvy navigation.  I tried keyword searches such as training and curling, lessons and curling.  All the time produced mixed results.  Maybe there is an information literacy piece as to how to search YouTube Videos.  Yeah, I need to look into this.

Lastly, I am going to take a lesson.  So, I will use this as part of my research.

Reference

Tallman, J. (1995). Connecting writing and research through the I-search paper: a teaching partnership between the library program and classroom. Emergency Librarian, 2320-23. Retrieved on 02/01/2013 from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy2.ulib.iupui.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=llf&AN=502838088&site=ehost-live.




No comments:

Post a Comment